Since I have been writing the N-Kidz stories I have had various doubts on the correctness of my punctuation and grammar. So I decided that I should work with a professional writing teacher and have my writing reviewed for appropriateness for Elementary School children.
Miss Eddy Scolds the Boys - Class Clown 2
With this in mind, a few weeks ago I placed an ad in Craig’s List looking for an Elementary School English teacher who would go through all of my stories and fix all that needed fixing. I wrote, “You will wield your red pen like a sword and cut out all that is bad.”
The first respondent I got was a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) teacher with many years of experience teaching school children English and writing. I did a Google search on her name and MCPS and was instantly taken to an official school website listing her as an English Writing teacher. This was confirmation enough that I had gotten the real deal. So I called her and hired her on the spot.
After printing out the nine Ninjanimals Kidz stories on the three reading levels, we met and discussed my needs. This teacher agreed to review/edit my stories and we made plans to meet in a week.
When we got together the second time, I was pleased to see that there were less red marks than I thought there would be. Of course “my teacher” thought there were a lot of mistakes! We discussed the writing issues and the types of punctuation errors I had repeatedly made in my stories.
I am now reviewing my stories and beginning the process of updating all them. I’m really happy with the results of this work, and glad that I made the decision to hire a professional. (Evidently I use the word “really” way too much.) If I’m writing for children, who themselves are learning to write, I need to make sure I’m using proper grammar and punctuation myself.
Knowing that I am now presenting my stories at expected standard helps me feel better about my writing!
Now to put in all the fixes, in all the reading levels, and on all three websites…
